TV Shows I'd Like to See

[True Blue Door]

Just some idle thoughts about TV shows / miniseries I'd like to see:

1. (The complete) Rome. HBO/BBC did a superb job with its all-of-2-season show "Rome," so I was disappointed when it ended. I want that series to be resurrected and to live up to its lofty title. I want to see pretty much all of Roman history represented, from a realistic interpretation of the Romulus myth all the way to the Ottoman Turks taking Constantinople. Don't care how much it would cost or how long it would take to play out. And I want every single minute to be as historically accurate as it's humanly possible to be and still make an engaging drama.

2. Qin. Entire history of Imperial China from deepest historical roots all the way to The Last Emperor, just like the Rome series I suggest. (My interest has been peaked by reading in more depth about the Opium Wars, and about the imperial exam system - fascinating stuff)

2. The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). Epic science fiction literature, would be perfect for an epic TV miniseries in the current golden age - and represents an awe-inspiring but still totally realistic vision of medium-term future events. Could probably hit up SpaceX for sponsorships or something.

4. Foundation series. I have no clue why this still has never been adapted. Such an epic work, and yet hardly the kind that's opaque enough to make showing it visually difficult.

5. Peloponnesus. Epic miniseries depicting the Peloponnesian War, based on the contemporary historical work of Thucydides. Brilliant, fascinating stuff. It was like an ancient, smaller-scale version of the Cold War and the World Wars all rolled into one. Titanic clash of ideologies between Athens and Sparta. Epic individuals on both sides. War crimes on both sides. Spies and maneuvers. Again, must be realistic - no "300" bullshit, and no brain-dead anachronism a la "Gladiator."

As much as I enjoy seeing popular works of fantasy being adapted into epic miniseries before the ink is even dry on the literature, I find it ludicrous that actual history is being neglected as well as works of immortal genius and insight confirmed by decades of opinion.

[Galileo126]

1. Good luck with that

With the History Channel being the "sell your junk" channel, and H2 being the "Humans can't be that smart, it must have been ALIENS" channel... there is no venue for actual history anymore. Maybe an occasional blurb on the PBS channels, but nothing devoted to all history, all the time.

As long as 'teh stupid" sells and is profitable for corporations, we are all screwed.

<end rant>

[True Blue Door]

4. I was thinking more along the lines of HBO, Netflix, AMC, or FX.

[Silver Gaia]

6. For the most part, I agree.

Most of what's on the History Channel is pure crap any more, but their Vikings is an excellent historical drama. Great sets, great costumes, great actors, and it does a good job of presenting a fairly historically and anthropologically accurate portrayal of Viking life through the (fictionalized, by necessity) story of Ragnar Lothbrok, a legendary (in the same sense as King Arthur) Viking hero. I find it quite enjoyable.

[BobbyBoring]

2. I'm with you on Rome

Just watched it again.
The problem was it was too expensive to continue.

[True Blue Door]

3. Hardly more expensive than Game of Thrones.

I guess Rome just happened before the current Golden Age brought in the cash to support such projects.

[Silver Gaia]

5. I was curious, so did a little research on Rome vs. Game of Thrones.

From multiple sources, here's how they compare:

Rome
Average cost per episode: $10 million (Season 1 cost $100 million to produce)
Viewership: 7.3 million in 2005
[Rome's sets were lavish, and most of them had to be constructed just for the show in order to be historically accurate.]

Game of Thrones
Average cost per episode: $5-6 million (estimated at $60-70 million per season)
Viewership: 13.6 million in 2013
[GoT uses a lot of on-location sites that aren't constructed just for the show since they don't have to be historically accurate.]

So, GoT has almost twice the viewers as Rome, and it actually costs less to produce.

I loooved Rome, too, and hated to see it go, but the numbers explain why.

I like your list, too. Any of these would make great TV shows. I am a huge fan of historical dramas (and I love sci-fi and fantasy, too).

[True Blue Door]

7. Thanks, I hadn't known that.

Maybe they were just over-ambitious with the sweeping visuals in Rome, and a new series could have humbler episodes thrown in that are more dialogue.

[Silver Gaia]

8. Sure, no problem. Like I said, I was curious!

As I thought about this more... I also realized that part of the cost for Rome was that, in order to be as historically accurate as possible, they had to build sets, because there are no existing structures in which they could film, and obviously, various parts of the city had to be recreated. I was a student when Rome was on the air, and ancient Rome was a topic of study for me. This show was good enough in its meticulous attention to detail that one of my professors, whose specialty is Rome, used clips from the show in class (which was pretty fun!) to illustrate various things about Roman life. Part of the beauty of that show was in seeing the recreation of the spectacle that was Rome.

Game of Thrones is equally lavish visually, but they aren't concerned with historical accuracy, so they have more freedom to use existing structures and various landscapes to recreate the culture described in the books. They don't have to start from scratch so much, like Rome did. They also use a fair amount of CGI, which isn't cheap, but is probably less expensive than physically creating various things in great detail.

I think Rome would likely have a bigger audience today than it did then, because people are more interested in this sort of thing now than they were at that time.

I love both of these shows, so it's interesting for me to think about.

[True Blue Door]

9. A sustainable show would probably have to use more CGI.

Even with its massive budget, the HBO/BBC Rome drastically underplayed the real splendor of Rome and especially Alexandria.

Of course, there are new innovations that might be useful - e.g., crowdfunding and crowdsourced work. They could have competitions to design and/or build setpieces and props for the show, with the only reward being that they're included and given full credit. With the whole world being invited, that actually can often lead to high-quality submissions.

None of that would be nearly enough, but it could help.